František Koukolík's new book was written as an attempt to pass on his own life experience to his grandchildren
The author has tried to capture what he has been doing for over half a century. He has grouped his traditional themes here, but formulated them concisely and arranged them alphabetically for clarity. He conceived the book as a map of the journey towards understanding human nature. It is full of facts and context.
In the introduction, he notes: "If you ask me what the book is about, I will answer: about freedom." It's not always happy reading, but because people always prefer to listen to that, what they're comfortable with and what they want to hear, the author is trying to be factual, he knows, that most events in history just aren't pleasant. Today's superpowers can get almost anyone to do something against their will. Power is sweet and the crowd is easily manipulated. There have been and are people for whom the addiction to power is stronger than the addiction to any kind of drug.
The result could be the collapse of civilization. New wars are brewing again. Even in Europe. Contemporary Europe and its culture are once again threatened by the controlled invasion of religious and other fundamentalisms. Together with the author, we have no choice but to trust that we will not stop thinking rationally. Yet it did not happen even in the darkest centuries so far. However, the invention of nuclear weapons may end the eternal competition for resources, even with the existence of our species.
There are now three simple but fundamental questions facing all of us across the planet: Will we survive? Can we be good human beings using common sense and at the same time heart-permeated reason? In addition, can we be ourselves? The author answers these questions optimistically: "I hope for the first. I'd like to believe the second one. I wish you a third."
